Starbucks Refreshers, fruit juice-based beverages lightly caffeinated with green coffee extract, went on sale last year in the United States and have finally made their way over to Japan. Packaged in 200ml cans, the drink will go on sale at Seven Eleven’s nationwide for 191 yen excluding tax (about US$2) from June 25.Read More

Bitching about our bosses is probably one of the best things about socialising with coworkers. They’re to strict; they’re a push-over; they have coffee breath and get way too close when they talk; whatever the issue, complaining about the boss is a great stress reliever and helps us get through the day.

According to a recent survey taken across four countries, however, expectations of bosses and opinions of what makes a good one vary wildly between countries. Not only that, Japan ranks as the country with the lowest “boss satisfaction” rate of all those surveyed.

Of course, my boss is the greatest, and I would never even dream of saying a bad word about him <cough>Christmasbonus<cough>, but the difference between the opinions of those surveyed in Japan and those in other countries, most notably China, is startling.

Japanese people love canned coffee. It’s cheap, it’s tasty and you can count on there being a vending machine stocked with it just about a two minute walk from anywhere you are in the country.

Not only is canned coffee a blessing to the people in convenience, but there are often promotions that package them with a free prize—usually a figurine—attached to the top with a plastic cap.

Now honestly, I usually don’t care much for these prizes as they only end up in the trash at the end of the day. However, the steam locomotive figurine that BOSS is currently offering with their Zero no Chouten coffee is probably the most creative freebie I’ve ever seen, using the coffee can itself as the body of the train!